Advancing household water-use feedback to inform customer behaviour for sustainable urban water

Sustainable urban water management is an increasingly important socio-political objective, however implementation remains ad hoc. While numerous tools and technologies have been developed to achieve sustainable urban water management, significant socio-institutional barriers remain. These impediments include, among others, institutional fragmentation, poor political leadership and technological lock-in. Exacerbated by a lack of theory and conceptual frameworks to link sustainable urban water management principles with on-ground execution, these barriers contribute to low levels of system-wide implementation capacity. Institutional capacity building is advocated in the sustainable urban water literature as a strategy to facilitate implementation; however, institutional capacity building has limited ability to provide an overview of regime operation, considered critical for enabling system-wide change. Focusing on processes, actor agency and institutions, the field of governance studies provides a useful perspective for understanding holistic regime operation and change. Yet the environmental governance literature remains contested; many scholars support a network or market governance approach while others advocate for hybrid approaches. Moreover, the governance systems needed for enabling sustainable urban water management have been given limited attention. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to develop a guiding framework for sustainable urban water governance. Through an emergent research design, systematically drawing on the perspectives of scholars and leading Australian urban water sustainability practitioners, likely attributes of a sustainable urban water management regime were identified. The attributes were focused through the lens of individual, organisational, inter-organisational relationships, and administrative and regulatory regime components. A comparison of the scholarly and practitioner perspectives, together with governance, regime and institutional literatures, explored which governance modes are most likely to enable sustainable urban water management. Overall, this investigation revealed a suite of likely sustainable urban water management regime attributes that are substantially different from traditional and contemporary practice highlighting the considerable regime change required to enable sustainable urban water management. The scholars supported a network governance approach, similar to current adaptive governance and conceptual scholarly urban water management projections, with interdependent actor relations and largely informal administrative arrangements. In comparison, the practitioners advocated hybrid governance arrangements comprising hierarchical and network modes, including a formal administrative framework, with mutually dependent and interconnected actor relationships to facilitate implementation of site specific sustainable urban water management solutions. Both scholars and practitioners supported using a variety of policy instruments, including market governance instruments. The outcomes of this investigation suggest the hybrid governance approach supported by practitioners extends current scholarship by providing detailed information on regime attributes and operation, which can provide insight for practical implementation of network governance approaches which are supported in current urban water management and adaptive governance literature. Additionally, the hybrid approach offers suggestions for successfully integrating the three ideal governance modes and reducing potential tension among the modes. In practice, the proposed framework could be used to design capacity building programs and policy initiatives drawing on mixed governance approaches. To extend this research and improve insight into regime operation and governance dynamics, future research testing the tentative sustainable urban water governance framework in other locations is required.

Pakistan is becoming a water scarce nation, owing to a booming population, rapid urbanization, and climate change. An innovative approach using smart water metering to achieve sustainable consumption has been applied in Islamabad, Pakistan, to enhance sustainable urban water management. Water supply monitoring was initiated with 20 m installed in residential and commercial units to manage the water supply by the government along with water quality testing. Collected information include one-year seasonal hydraulic data and water quality analysis data through standard methods. The outcomes showed that smart water metering is an ideal solution for monitoring of public water supply. This example case study supports policymakers in the implementation of water metering and pricing scheme in similar developing countries by outlining smart solutions to practical challenges such as the high-water demand of mosques, water rationing, internet connection problems, mismanagement and illegal actions by some customers. Water quality results showed that 83.4% of the samples were contaminated with faecal coliforms in the study area. A public private partnership could make water metering, pricing and water analysis implementation sustainable.

The growing need for efficient and sustainable urban water management has accelerated the adoption of smart monitoring infrastructures based on wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This study proposes a connectivity-aware methodology for the optimal deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in smart water metering systems. The approach models the wireless sensors as nodes embedded in household water meters and determines the minimal yet sufficient set of Data Aggregation Points required to ensure complete network coverage and transmission reliability. A scalable and hierarchical topology is generated by integrating an enhanced minimum spanning tree algorithm with set covering techniques and geographic constraints, leading to a robust intermediate layer of aggregation nodes. These nodes are wirelessly linked to a single cellular base station, minimizing infrastructure costs while preserving communication quality. Simulation results on realistic urban layouts demonstrate that the proposed strategy reduces network fragmentation, improves energy efficiency, and simplifies routing paths compared to traditional ad hoc designs. The results offer a practical framework for deploying resilient and cost-effective smart water metering solutions in densely populated urban environments.

The article presents an overview of traditional water meters in Vietnam, digitizing metrology technologies and wireless data transmission technology for data collection and user applications in smart water metering systems. After that, it is proposed to design a smart wireless water meter module. This paper focuses on designing and implementing a smart water meter to re-use traditional mechanical water meters by designing a smart water metering module attached to the existing meter. This way, it eliminates the costs of investing in flow water meter and influences the old water meter infrastructure system. The contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) Firstly, it proposes wireless data transmission and digitizing metrology technologies suitable for water metering systems in Viet Nam. (ii) Secondly, the proposed smart water meter module designs include hardware, firmwave, and plastic cover. There are two experimental prototypes of the module is introduced in this paper (iii) Lastly, The paper provides a water metering management software model for smart cities. And the overall systems of the proposed platform were built to verify the presented design. To reduce the amount of water leaking or users hacking from outside the meter in the measurement results, the article proposes to design features to alert about: abnormal flow, strong magnetic field influence, and equipment cover being removed. The experimental verification was designed with the Actaris water meter using Hall technology to digitize data and the Itron water meter with digitizing technology using the LC sensor. Besides, the Lora wireless network system is proposed and deployed to verify the water metering management with the advantages of low energy consumption, high security, and strict authentication process. Actual results for the laboratory environment and residential areas show that signal loss (RSSI) and signal noise (SNR) is within the allowable range. In addition, the packet loss rate <1% and average power consumption meter <50uA. Water metering management software is presented to verify the smart city service system.

Urban water conservation through customised water and end-use information

Technological progress can contribute to a more conscious and sustainable consumption of water. This is especially important in the context of dwindling resources and climate change. The objective of the study is to investigate how consumers’ perceived knowledge on water usage influences their intention to adopt smart (IoT-based) water meters, which deliver very precise data on the amount of water used in a household. We hypothesized that perceived knowledge on personal water usage exerts a direct and indirect influence on the intention to adopt a smart water meter. For the mediators, we used the intention to save water and variables derived from Value-Belief-Norm theory: awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility and personal norm. We verified the hypotheses by applying structural equation modelling to a sample of 532 respondents. We found that perceived knowledge on water usage directly influences the intention to adopt a smart water meter, and that all considered variables worked to mediate the relationship between perceived knowledge and intention. Thus, based on our results perceived knowledge plays an important role on the relationship between values-beliefs-norms and intentions to apply smart water meters, which can be used for future research in order to reduce household water consumption by increasing the probability of installing smart water meters.

Innovative methods presently affect all sectors of the national economy contributing to the progress and overall development of the economy, and the living standard worldwide. Innovations are equally necessary both in the private and in public sectors therefore, the original innovative ideas in each sector are greatly accepted. Similar concept is significant for companies dealing with urban water management. New methods are available mainly for capturing and reusing of rainwater in urban areas which leads to a positive impact on sustainable urban water management regarding today's water scarcity problems. This article describes some of the most popular innovative methods and examples used for rainwater harvesting, recycling and reuse. As a result, the evaluation of the most suitable water harvesting techniques related to sustainable water management, and their application in the city of Brno in Czech Republic are described.

Since the past few years, the smart city paradigm has been influencing sustainable urban water resources management. Smart metering schemes for end users have become an important strategy for water utilities to have an in-depth and fine-grained knowledge about urban water use. Beyond reducing certain labor costs, such as those related to manual meter reading, such detailed and continuous flow of information is said to enhance network efficiency and improve water planning by having more detailed demand patterns and forecasts. Research focusing on those initiatives has been very prolific in countries such as Australia. However, less academic attention has been paid to the development of smart metering in other geographies. This paper focuses on smart water metering in Spain and, more particularly, documents and reflects on the experience of the city of Alicante (southeastern Spain), a pioneer case of massive deployment of remote reading of water meters at the household level and for large urban customers. Through data and interviews with water managers from the water utility, we shed light on the costs and early benefits, as well as the potentialities and (unexpected) problems of this technology to contribute to more sustainable urban water cycles.

Urban water supply management is constrained by water scarcity, pipe bursts, and unequal distribution. Traditional systems lack predictive capabilities, resulting in resource loss and high operating costs. AI, IoT, and Big Data-integrated smart water networks can monitor in real-time, detect leaks, and predict demand, making the system efficient and sustainable. This research investigates AI-based smart water networks to optimize urban water management. The paper aims to improve water demand forecasting, identify real-time leaks, evaluate the feasibility of IoT-based smart meters, and create an AI-based optimization system to reduce water losses and operational costs. A mixed-methods approach, integrating machine learning predictive modeling with qualitative measurements of engineering progress, was employed. Supervised learning algorithms analyzed real-time sensor data, historical data, and cloud-based analytical data, with the Random Forest Classifier supporting water management planning. The model achieved 100% accuracy, 100% recall, and an F1 score of 100% for leak detection. IoT-assisted smart water meters reduced non-revenue water losses by 23% and operational costs by 18%. With these insights, AI has maximized the efficiency of water distribution by optimizing resource utilization and sustainability. AI-enabled smart water networks have greatly improved urban water efficiency through loss reduction, efficient resource usage, and prompt decision-making. However, it is important to note that implementation faces barriers due to high costs and cyber risks; nevertheless, it remains an exciting prospect for ensuring sustainability in water management. Specific Contribution: The present study proposes an AI-based framework for predictive water demand forecasting and leak detection. Its implications for IoT-enabled smart meters and cloud computing are discussed. The cost-benefit analysis provides further support and suggests other avenues for future research, such as reinforcement learning and adaptive control mechanisms, to maximize the use of water resources.

van de Meene, Susan J. and Rebekah R. Brown, 2009. Delving into the “Institutional Black Box”: Revealing the Attributes of Sustainable Urban Water Management Regimes.Journal of the American Water Resources Association(JAWRA) 45(6):1448‐1464.Abstract: This paper is based on the proposition that the transition to sustainable urban water management has been hampered by the lack of insight into attributes of a sustainable urban water regime. Significant progress has been made in developing technical solutions to advance urban water practice, however it is the co‐evolution of the socio‐institutional and technical systems that enable a system‐wide transition. A systematic analysis of 81 empirical studies across a range of practice areas was undertaken to construct a schema of the sustainable urban water regime attributes. Attributes were identified and analyzed using a framework of nested management regime spheres: the administrative and regulatory system, inter‐organizational, intra‐organizational, and human resources spheres. The regime is likely to involve significant stakeholder involvement, collaborative inter‐organizational relationships, flexible and adaptive organizational cultures, and motivated and engaging employees. Comparison of the constructed sustainable and traditional regime attributes reveals that to realize sustainable urban water management in practice a substantial shift in governance is required. This difference emphasizes the critical need for explicitly supported strategies targeted at developing each management regime sphere to further enable change toward sustainable urban water management.

Urban water management involves urban water supply (import, treatment and distribution of water), urban wastewater management (collection, treatment and disposal of urban sewage) and urban storm water management. Declining groundwater tables, polluted and declining sources of water, water scarcity in urban areas, unsatisfactory urban water supply and sanitation situation, pollution of receiving water bodies (including the ground water), and urban floods have become the concerns and issues of sustainable urban water management. This paper proposes a model for urban stormwater and sewage management which addresses these concerns and issues of sustainable urban water management. This model proposes segregation of the sewage into black water and greywater, and urban sub-watershed level stormwater-greywater management systems. During dry weather this system will be handling only the greywater and making the latter available as reclaimed water for reuse in place of the fresh water supply. During wet weather, the system will be taking care of (collection and treatment) both the storm water and the greywater, and the excess of the treated water will be disposed off through groundwater recharging. Application of this model in the Patiala city, Punjab, INDIA for selected urban sub-watersheds has been tried. Information and background data required for the conceptualization and design of the sub-watershed level urban stormwater-greywater management system was collected and the system has been designed for one of the sub-watersheds in the Patiala city. In this paper, the model for sustainable urban water management and the design of the Sub-watershed level Urban Stormwater-Greywater Management System are described.

An investigation of smart water meter adoption factors at universities

African cities have high non-revenue water (NRW) losses due to leakages, illegal connections, and meter irregularities. Inefficiencies endanger financial sustainability and service delivery in Kigali, Rwanda, where NRW was 35–45%. This study proposes a pilot intervention using Kamstrup MULTICAL® 21 smart meters and LoRaWAN® connectivity technology to reduce these losses. In three districts, 500 smart meters were installed for residential, business, and institutional consumption. Three months were spent on baseline, one month on installation, and six months on post-installation monitoring. Descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, regression models, and qualitative customer and technician questionnaires were used to analyse daily automated readings, leakage alarms, and tamper detection from the meters. Results indicated a 23% decline in NRW, 64% faster leak repair, and 41% fewer billing complaints. Real-time SMS use notifications boosted consumer confidence and efficiency.

Design of hydro electromagnetic and piezoelectric energy harvesters for a smart water meter system

Towards understanding governance for sustainable urban water management